Tactical Interactive Holographic System

The Tactical Interactive Holographic System (TIHS) is a new Tactical interactive system recently installed into the Keltoi Class Battleships.

Purpose

The Tactical Interactive Holographic System is a hands-on holographic display that allows for users to interact with their environments to scale, allowing for quick targeting and quicker response times.

Description

The TIHS starts with a small ring that the Tactical Officer steps into. Immediately, the Holographic projects 'project' the user into the area of space the ship inhabits, drawing data from all Tactical sensors. This view can be manipulated and zoomed with spoken or 'touch' commands to specific parts of the projection.

Everything about the Interface is controllable according to the users personal preferences. Weapons are controlled by the fingers, and targeted/fired by 'touching' a portion of the holographic representation of the enemy. Whatever portion of the ship is 'touched' is what is targeted.

In the default setup, the Pointer Finger of either hand controls phasers, the Middle Finger of either finger controls Photon Torpedoes, and the Ring Finger controls Quantum Torpedoes. Multiple weapons can be launched by using either both hands, or 'touching' the target with multiple fingers (or both).

By default, the Shield Status and major Ships Status bars 'float' in view to the immediate right of the viewers forward view. Enemy stats scroll in 'float' above the enemy ship.

Every setting can be changed, either launch commands or status bar location and view. During the time the TIHS system is operative, the Tactical 1 console is disabled. Full Tactical control can be regained at the touch of a button on either Tactical Console, however, should the holographic display fail in combat. In the event of power or feed failure, control of Weapons and Shields automatically reverts to another active Tactical Console.

The TIHS system has direct feeds into every tactical sensor, and it contains it's own separate backup power supply to ensure Tactical control should Main and/or Backup power fail. The Processors for the Threat Database and Holographic Projectors are contained in a secure room in the Tactical Section.

The TIHS is still listed as Experimental Technology, and is being test-run in select ships of Tactical Configuration. The Keltoi Class USS Boudicca is involved in the testing for a period of two years, or until it either proves its success or failure in a combat situation.

Primary Purpose: Increase in targeting efficiency Secondary Purpose: Ease in identifying and attacking enemy craft

Sample Posts

Authors Note: These posts were done by J Trout and accurately describes the basic use of the TIHS.

Immediatly After the Relaunch

(Boudicca - Training Holodeck 1 - Senior Chief Melody Haverstaad - 1130)

Melody smiled as she stepped into the training program. It was a representation of the Bridge, with mythical officers inhabiting every position but Tactical. She placed her hands behind her back, "This is the Holographic Training Program, Sir. A little something we threw together to teach the intricacies of our new interactive system. She looked at him for a few moments, then gestured to the one real anomaly of the bridge. It was a second holographic ring, twice as large as the one by the tactical station. "You step inside this ring, Sir, and you will see not only what I am seeing, but a holographic representation of myself. You can walk around it, and through it, to get the best vantage point. But for all intensive purposes, you will see exactly what I'm seeing and doing without bumping into me during action."

(reply: if desired)

She made sure he was within the circle, then walked over and sat in the tactical seat herself. She looked over at him, made sure all was in order, then said "Computer, start simulation."

Immediately Red Alert klaxons went off. The Captain of the simulation swung in his chair, "Report!"

"Romulan decloaking off the starboard bow!" the Chief said, getting into the act. "Raising shields!"

The Captain swung back around, "Arm all weapons!"

Melody hid another smile as she slapped a button that armed all weapons on the console, then slid her chair back to give herself room. "Start Tactical Systems!"

All around her, the images of the bridge faded, to be replaced by a 3D representation of the surrounding stars and enemies. Off to the ships Starboard bow, she saw a perfect image of a Warbird, primed and ready for combat.

Mindful of the fact that ten feet away, the Lieutenant was watching a holographic representation of her doing her thing, she reached out and pushed a 'button' that was hovering in mid-air near the bottom of her reach. It was a button that chose her personal configuration, something she had set up before hand. Now, the computer recognized her, and it would obey the conditions she had already programmed. She looked up, to her immediate top-right, where a small schematic of the ships readiness and shield-status were poised permanently. Shields were up and at 100%, no problems were known.

Then, with no warning, the Warbird opened fire. "Incoming!" she bellowed.

"Open fire, fire at will!" she heard the Captain say clearly from 'beyond' the star field. Melody grinned as the ship turned into evasive maneuvers. She put out her right hand, and 'touched' the Romulan ship with her pointer finger. Immediately, phasers lanced out from the holo-Boudicca and hit the Warbird where her index finger had grazed. She reached out with her left hand and quickly touched several spots with her index finger there, and photon torpedoes launched for each of the places she had targeted.

In a nutshell, she was touching the places on the warbird that she wanted hit with specific weapons. Phasers were controlled with her right hand, photons with her left. That was how she had it programmed for her, and each member of the Bridge Security crew could program it to their own tastes.

After thirty more seconds of attacking, she suddenly stopped. With deliberation she turned, and waved at nothing. Ten feet away, the Lieutenant would be seeing her holographic double doing the exact same thing. She said, in a loud voice, "Computer, stop and reset. Disengage Holographic Interface."

At the same time the Tactical Interface disintegrated before her very eyes, the holographic simulation itself paused and reset itself to what it had been when they walked in. The Lieutenant was still in the larger holographic circle. From the look on his face, he had enjoyed what he had seen.

"You might have noticed, Sir, that I have set the weapons to both my hands. Right pointer for phaser, Left for photon. My Quantum torpedo command is my right middle finger, I didn't launch any of those. You can choose any number of commands, though I suggest you keep them easy and practice them enough to make them reflex in short order." She stood up from the chair, "I also had a shield-status monitor at my top-right, at all times, so I could simply glance over and see. You can have any number of controls 'visible' to you while you are in the matrix, but I would warn you not to place too many or you can block your view of the battle."

(reply: Bush)

"Care to give it a try, Sir? You can play with my settings if you like, unless you want to spend ten minutes training it to you." She stepped away from the Tactical station, "I can watch as you just watched, and give pointers if you like?"

High-Level Tactical Training

(USS Boudicca - Tactical Holodeck, 'Bridge' of the Boudicca - Senior Chief Petty Officer Melody Haverstaad - 1310)

"Come about 150 mark 10, target the Trigoti and strafe every ship as we pass. Full impulse and fire at will!"

Melody blinked back a stinging in her eyes as the Boudicca swung around, making the holographic weave around her turn. They had been in simulated combat with a simulated battle-group against another simulated battle-group for the last forty-five minutes, and the strain was starting to show. The holographic ring around her had held steady, its separate power-source had maintained the holographic connection even when main power had blinked during a rough bombardment twenty minutes ago or so.

Melody spun in her chair and looked around her from her vantage point as the Boudicca. There was a bird-of-prey on their starboard side and a Nebula class on the port, someone in Stratops was actually doing their job it appeared. But she had no time to waste on that thought, she spun 'forward' again and looked at the ships they were approaching. The Trigoti was a Sovereign class ship; there were four others in a flying-V approaching them at breakneck speed while two friend bird-of-preys strafed the hell out of them. She grunted and brought her hands up, then gently touched several spots in rapid secession with her right pointer finger. Phaser-blasts lanced out everywhere she touched, followed by a couple quantum torpedoes as she picked at the ship with her left pointer.

The Trigoti stalled and immediately made a quick Z-axis move followed by a spin to point her stronger rear-shields at the enemy. Melody bit back a curse as all four turned their attention from the BoP's onto the three oncoming vessels, the Boudicca rocked and she distinctly heard an exploding panel across the bridge. Someone screamed as well, and she further heard the Captain ordering the injured off the bridge.

~You'll pay for that one.~ she thought savagely, loosing herself in her own testing program. This was the real strength of the Tactical Holographic Interface; she could target just as fast as she could identify targets and touch them. She reached out with both hands and began touching places on all four ships, alternately hitting them with phasers and both styles of torpedoes. The Boudicca was a juggernaught of force, the already-besieged enemy vessels began falling back under the vicious onslaught, especially when her flanking ships began strafing as well.

The Boudicca flew 'over' the enemy ships, causing Melody to look down and then spin in her chair backwards to continue the strafing attack. Something caught her eye, and she turned her head just in time to see two more ships coming in on their port. "Captain! Two ships coming in on the port!"

Sevant started barking orders, but it wasn't in time, a volley for torpedoes slammed into the port-aft, knocking out the impulse engines. The ship began a tail-first flat spin as the small shield graphic to Melodies left blinked red and then went black over the port-aft. "Shields down aft!" she bellowed as she lashed out with all weapons that would bear as the ship continued its flat spin. She heard the Captain calling for thrusters, engineers giving damage reports, but it didn't matter. She winced as several more quantum torpedoes were launched in their direction, but she kept fighting to the last. The holodeck suddenly went white before it reset itself. Melody found herself sitting in front of the secondary tactical console, the holographic interface next to her sitting unused, the bridge-crew all frozen in wait for the inevitable battle she had designed.

[Ship Destroyed, Advanced-Test of the Tactical Holographic Interface Reset for next User.]

Melody wiped some sweat from her brow and stood up from her chair, That had been 45 minutes of pure combat hell, and it was likely to become their reality in the next few months. One of her assistants was sitting off to the side with a PADD in hand. "There are only a couple glitches to fix Chief, nothing important. I'd say this particular test is ready."

"Good, I'll drop it off to the Chief and get all Bridge-crew in on it immediately." She pulled on her uniform and looked around, "Computer, save and close ATTHI 3."

The holodeck reverted to its yellow-on-black grid as the program closed and she tapped her badge, "Senior Chief Haverstaad to Chief Stolev. I've completed the Advanced Interface training program, permission to have it evaluated for general use among the bridge-crew?"